Use Case vs User Story: Key Differences (with Examples)

There are many requirements for making a successful product. If you want to solve a pain point for your customers, you need to listen to their feedback and translate it into tasks for your development team. This is where use cases and user stories come in.

Both terms are used in agile software development and they often get lumped together as the same thing. In reality, there are key differences between a user story and a use case, and today, we'll show you what they are.

Tl;DR - The Overview

• Use case: describes how users interact with a product to achieve a specific goal. It typically includes the interactions step-by-step, capturing both the primary (happy) path and alternate or error scenarios.
• User story: a short, simple description of a feature or functionality, usually written from the end-user's perspective. It follows the format: As a [type of user], I want [goal] so that [benefit].
• Key differences: While both describe user interactions, use cases are detailed and technical, focusing on every possible interaction path. User stories are simpler, focusing on delivering value by highlighting the user's needs, making them ideal for quick feature planning in agile environments.
• Collect feedback first: Before writing either use cases or user stories, gather user feedback to ensure you're addressing real customer pain points. Product feedback tools like Featurebase help you do that quickly with feedback widgets, prioritization frameworks, and more.

What is a use case?

A use case in product methodology is a specific scenario that describes how users interact with a product to achieve a certain goal.

They are meant for the product manager or owner to understand the use case model and product functionality from the users' perspective.

Use cases have four core elements:

• Actor: who is using the product?
• Goal: what are they trying to achieve?
• Steps: which specific steps do they go through?
• Outcome: what happens once the user completes all the steps?

Here is an example of a use case in a SaaS product: "A user logs into the dashboard to view real-time data analytics on customer engagement."

What is a user story?

A user story is a short and simple explanation of what a feature or functionality does in a product from the user's perspective.

It helps the product owner and the development teams understand the users' needs and why they have certain feature requests.

Here is the typical user story structure:

• As a [user role],
• I want to [desired action],
• so that [benefit or goal].

Here's an example of how it works in a SaaS product: As a product manager, I want to view real-time analytics on customer behavior, so that I can make data-driven decisions faster.

Use case vs user story: main differences

These are the main differences between user stories and use cases that you should know about before using either of them.

1. Scope and detail

• A use case outlines a detailed description of how the end user interacts with a product. It includes step-by-step actions that an end user takes to achieve a certain goal, as well as variations of those actions.
• A user story is a high-level overview of what a user does to achieve something in the product. It is shorter, less detailed, and focused on the outcome rather than the detailed specifications and steps.

2. Format

• A use case is typically written in a very specific format that has to include certain elements. Namely:
  • Actor: the end user
  • Goal: what they need to achieve
  • Preconditions: what needs to happen before they take action in your product
  • Main flow: the main course of action the user takes while in your product
  • Alternative paths/flows: alternative choices they can make while trying to get to the same outcome
  • Outcome: the end result of their activity in your product
• User stories are usually written in a less strict format than use cases. It typically follows this structure: "As a [user], I want to [action], so that [goal]."

3. Level of detail

• Use cases are highly detailed and specific and cover the whole process of using a feature in a product, from start to finish.
• User stories are broad and generalized and show what the end user wants to do, rather than how they get to this point through each user interaction.

4. Objective

• Use cases aim to document all the possible interactions the user may have with a product or feature.
• User stories aim to deliver value by describing their needs or features.

5. Usage

• Use cases are used for detailed functional requirements, writing technical documentation, or for navigating complex systems.
• User story mapping is commonly used in agile projects to plan the development process, prioritize features, and guide discussions in product and development teams while keeping everyone on the same page.

6. Stakeholder involvement

• Use cases are typically written by product owners, product managers, and business analysts who know the technical ins and outs of a product.
• User stories are created by product owners and development teams, but many other stakeholders can be involved in the writing process too.

Which one should you use?

User stories and use cases seem similar, but the latter requires more work. Here's how to know which one to choose.

Use user stories:

• For agile development: in Agile and Scrum frameworks, as a quick and user-focused way to describe functionality.
• When focusing on user value, the end goal is not just to deliver working software, but to deliver features that solve pain points and add value for a specific user.
• During backlog grooming and sprint planning: to prioritize features based on user needs and business value.

Use use cases:

• For complex systems: when you need more detail because there are many interactions or complex user actions.
• When documenting system behavior: listing out how the system responds under various conditions, including handling errors and alternative paths.
• When creating technical documentation: when creating technical documentation for QA and development teams that need to clearly understand the interaction flows and edge cases.

Before writing either, collect user feedback first

The absolute best way to anticipate user needs is to collect feedback from a variety of sources. Instead of scraping it from all over the place, get a centralized feedback tool that lets your teams prioritize the feedback that really matters for your product.

With Featurebase, you can collect all feedback in one place. This lets you create use cases and user stories based on real user insights, sorted and prioritized based on customers' pain points, revenue, and your business goals.

Start collecting feedback for data-backed user stories with Featurebase for free →